A Meditation App, Insight Timer
/Insight Timer started ringing in my meditations. Timing my meditations took on a new dimension. This is great support for students of The Radiance Technique®.
Read MoreThis blog covers an eclectic range of topics for information, fun, and all the ups and downs of life. For students who have studied The First and/or The Second Degrees of The Radiance Technique® with Radiant Nursing – there are suggestions for integrating TRT® into daily living. There's something for everyone.
Insight Timer started ringing in my meditations. Timing my meditations took on a new dimension. This is great support for students of The Radiance Technique®.
Read MoreFrom the book The Myth of Freedom by Chögyam Trungpa.
Does the line “willing to be completely ordinary” make you cringe even just a little bit?
Being ordinary isn’t what we’re taught in our society. Competition reigns supreme in our outer world and that means you’ve got to be greater, better – no matter which game you're playing.
Run faster, leap higher, stay up later, have more projects than the other guy, and yes, shine brighter, be more enlightened, than your meditating neighbor. You'll find competition even in the "game" of meditation.
Naturally, we are all growing and striving to be the most authentic that we can be — and yes, we want to lessen or even eliminate our faults.
But, the first step is the acceptance of who we are?
Well, how could we begin without it?
On days when you are being particularly hard on yourself, the above quote is a nice reminder to be more gentle. Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) can support themselves on the path with ongoing use of TRT® hands-on.
Use of TRT® supports us to be the observer. It’s like turning up the lights in a darkened room. With increased light, we’re able to see more clearly.
TRT® hands-on helps us to relax into a deeper awareness of ourselves.
The fact that Chögym Trungpa chose the title The “Myth” of Freedom is a bit daring, don’t you think?
Isn’t that the dream of all meditators — to be free? Free from it all? And yet, many of our teachers remind us that the path of meditation is not an escape.
There’s no escape from ourselves.
What is freedom? Where is it? Is it inside or outside of us?
Open portals are all around us.
Step through the gateways that you find in your meditations.
Do you ever find yourself running after a better place as mentioned in this poem?
Do you find yourself searching for something else out there, not even sure what it is?
It's tricky, because we want to plan and prepare for things, such as going to school, working on a project, planning a trip. These are all with a future event in mind – school graduation, project completion, a place experienced. These are good and lofty goals.
Yet, our planning and projects co-exist with our challenge of being present while we're doing all of that.
In this very moment.
So easily said, and not so easily done.
He writes: "At the center of your being, you have the answer."
Perhaps this center is our Inner Heart. When we are guided by our Inner Heart, our steps of doing are taken from an interior reference point. But how do we "hear" the guidance of our Inner Heart?
Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) have a simple way to support themselves to access their intuition. Use of the TRT® hands-on connects us consciously to universal, supportive energy that allows us to better "hear" our inner heart.
When we are guided from within, and not from outside of ourselves, our doing reflects our being; the two are in alignment.
The metamorphose from wiggly caterpillar to cocoon to "flying flower" enchants us.
Butterflies flit about our gardens, sipping from flower centers, in the intricate dance of pollination.
Is that a smoldering tango that we see between butterfly and flower? Or an airy waltz?
Our hearts smile as we watch a butterfly's crooked flight path on the warm air. These tiny creatures fill our sense of sight, but what if we could perceive them at a micro-cosmos level?
What if we could actually hear their feathered wings in flight, beating upon the air, just as we can hear a bird's wings?
What if we could hear the siren song of a flower as it calls, coaxing the butterfly to take a delicate sip?
What a melodious mini-duet that would be.
To enjoy a butterfly, stomping and yelling are not terribly effective. Rather, focus on moving gently or holding still. "BE the flower," I can hear the Zen teacher intoning.
Imagine yourself sitting in a meditation. You radiate such stillness and peace that even a butterfly feels safe to rest gently in your Radiant Hand – like the first image above.
You may not actually have butterflies landing in your hand (although you never know), yet this is a lovely image for our meditations. It supports us to remember the energy of stillness and goodwill to all creatures of this Earth.
In this artwork a thread comes from another level and then turns in a counterclockwise spiral within the heart – imagery that reminds me how The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) gives us access to universal energy. The use of TRT® hands-on allows us to go deeper, to become more aware of the loving energy in our hearts and in existence.
Exploring the energy of stillness we see that it can be found within us. The world spins ever faster, we, ourselves, are running madly sometimes, yet this stillness continues to bear silent witness.
Are we aware of it?
A fellow meditator on Insight Timer shared with us:
Immediately upon reading this, questions started to percolate inside me. I launched an exploration of ideas.
Happiness is part of a pendulum that swings from happy to sad, always in motion, always with the knowledge that no matter where you are on the pendulum of happy, sad is on the other side, waiting for you.
The same is true when we are in sad, but from that perspective, it is sometimes hard to remember that happy is also waiting for us.
As long as we are in a human form, we are never free from either sadness or happiness. These feelings are conditions of the emotional body. If our emotions cease to exist, so too, will the human form.
The fact that we are here on this planet, means we are going to experience happiness as well as anxiety, depression, loneliness and grief. It's all part of the package.
We seem capable of getting stuck on sad for a long time, but it's interesting to note there are not so many reports of getting stuck on happy.
The idea of impermanence and the pendulum of our emotions is often captured in the Zen phrase "this, too, shall pass."
Sufi and Zen stories, and biblical parables as well, tell of a great King who was given a ring with this phrase inscribed inside. In either moments of joy or sorrow, he would look at it and be reminded of impermanence.
Here is a link to one version of the story:
With ongoing use, The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) provides a supportive tool for deepening and expanding your awareness.
Whatever you are experiencing – happiness or sadness – TRT® is there for you. With your use of TRT® hands-on, you access universal energy to apply to your own personal situations. Use of TRT® helps bring balance to your emotions, helping you to center yourself and see the bigger picture.
Use of TRT® provides you inner support and balance whenever you find yourself in a position that you need to say, "this, too, shall pass."
Walking carefully, we realize that enlightenment does not eliminate our human daily life. Someone may be enlightened, and yet they still have a human form and still experience the wide range of human emotions.
All of our emotions, however, are not who we really are. They are something happening, almost accidentally. They are on the periphery. We are in the center, the observer.
"This, too, shall pass" is a bridge to higher wisdom. It can take us to a point of transcendence in our awareness.
We may even find that happiness embraces sadness and sadness holds within it happiness.
This is what we seek.
To bring our meditation, our mindfulness, to all that we do. No separation.
Reading this passage by Ajahn Chah, I was struck by what he said about bringing mindfulness to everything. "Why, that is what you can do with The Radiance Technique® and it's so easy!"
This is one of the simple, yet profound, gifts of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®).
Once you have studied The Radiance Technique®, you are able to use TRT® hands-on in all of your activities. Beginning with The First Degree of The Radiance Technique®, you have access to universal energy. You can integrate mindfulness into your daily life – as soon as you get up in the morning, at work, at home, whatever you may be doing.
What a delight to be able to bring increased awareness, to all that you do. Whether it be glorious moments of great joy, or aching times of deep sorrow, or tiny moments of quietness, whether you are well and healthy or you have an illness – The Radiance Technique® is there for you to use in all your activities.
I simply cannot express in words the fullness of this easy-to-use technique – TRT®.
You really must experience it for yourself.
I invite you to experience The Radiance Technique® and to go deeper with your meditations and mindfulness.
You're invited to grow, to thrive, with your use of TRT® and to integrate your meditation and mindfulness throughout each day. Explore and discover this vast universe that extends out to the depths of galaxies and returns, yet again, to a raindrop on a flower.
It's your precious life.
It's all there for you.
(The Radiance Technique® is not associated with any religion.)
Do you view yourself as someone who is traveling on a spiritual journey?
Perhaps you are already using techniques to support your illumination.
The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) can be combined with any other relaxation technique you may already use such as massage, acupressure, or yoga, just to name a few. There is no conflict.
Combining TRT® with these techniques allows you to promote even deeper levels of relaxation and balancing.
TRT® can also be used along with any other meditation technique. It always moves in the direction of greater light and expanding love. Use of TRT® by itself, or with other meditation techniques, helps you to illuminate and deepen your meditations further.
Each and every time you use TRT® hands-on, you access healing, universal light which promotes increased clarity. TRT® is easy to use, yet profound in its depth of healing and relaxation because it interacts with all levels of your being.
With the clear light accessed by TRT®, your spiritual journey becomes lighter and brighter.
Discover for yourself the light and the beauty of The Radiance Technique®.
Radiant Nursing - Caring for Yourself, Caring for Others. Offering classes in The Radiance Technique® with Authorized Instructor, Leslie Anneliese.
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